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An excited Tiger Woods is relishing the weekend of the Turkish Airlines Open by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism after putting himself “right there” with a round of the tournament 63.

The World Number One, whose appearance this week has created much excitement with the locals, showed some signs of life this morning.

With eight holes to play in his second round, he picked up two birdies and looked set to enter the second 18 three under par before a late bogey undermined his efforts, though.

It was not to matter, however, as his stunning iron and wedge play led to a quite wonderful round that left him a shot adrift of the leaders on 11 under par.

“I'm right there; that’s the whole idea,” he said. “Got two more days of hopefully making a lot of birdies.

“Hit a lot of good shots and made some putts but, like I was saying over there, I missed quite a few putts today that were within ten feet, so it could have been one of those really low, special rounds, but I'll take it.

“And this golf course lends itself to making a lot of birdies, we have five par 5s and a couple short par 4s and the greens are really receptive. You just have to make a bunch of birdies.”

Henrik Stenson and Ian Poulter headline a four way tie atop the leaderboard, with Victor Dubuisson and Justin Walters also up there.

Woods, unsurprisingly, is thinking only of winning and already has a target score in mind for the tournament.

“Yeah, only one back,” he added. “But it's so bunched, so many guys with a chance to win.

“We know it's going to take something really low. You're going to have to go 20 plus probably to win this tournament.

“Forecast is supposed to be like this the rest of the week, so if that's the case, just expect that guys are going to be aggressive and guys are going to make a lot of birdies.”